Paint Job

Now that I've finished Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (last night - yay!), it's time to set my sights seriously on getting my bedroom painted. I've had the paint and supplies on the floor in my bedroom for months. I've even bought curtains and sconces to match. But I guess I lost interest when all the shopping ended and the real work had to begin.

The color I've chosen is called "Green Rosette". It's a Ralph Lauren color (GH57) and I just checked their site so I could show you a sample and oh my God they aren't kidding when they say online color examples are only photographic representations and may not match the actual color exactly! Their sample is about as close to brown as you can get without actually being brown, when the actual color is more like a light pea green. Lesson - do not choose paint colors online.

For accents, I bought these curtains and some nickel-plated rods and holdbacks with blue glass balls on them. I've taken some before photos already, but I won't post them until I have some "afters".

I need to get a nice rug for the floor, too...

!!

Peter Jackson. Unrecognizable.

(well, almost)

Meet the smoothies!: "While the metrosexual spends a lot at Barney's, shops for heirloom tomatoes at Dean & Deluca, keeps his CD collection carefully alphabetized, and nurtures a wide range of house plants without help from his gay friends, the smoothie is a horse of a different color. ...The smoothie's interest in his 'look' is more deeply felt and sincere than that, not to mention slightly misguided and disturbingly meticulous: Baseball caps are molded, painstakingly, into the perfect C-shape; stubble is trimmed into the perfect Don Johnson-style 5 o'clock shadow; 'distressed' jeans, with their calculated faded patches and hemmed rips, are cleaned and pressed and tugged just below the waist; eyebrows are waxed, as is back, chest and (gasp) the family jewels to boot. The smoothie spends a lot not just on clothes and haircuts, but on highlights, spray-tans, manicures and pedicures, bodybuilding formulas, gym memberships, dry cleaning bills, man jewelry and hip-hop classes. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the smoothie is like a cross between a frat boy and Britney Spears."

I've noticed this trend and it is extremely disturbing. Call me crazy, but I have no interest whatsoever in a man who not only spends more time cleaning up than I do, but by his mere existence would make me feel like a big, fat, hairy and unstylish lump. No thank you.

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Decision 2005 - The Final Two.

The Ultimate Hottest U.S. Senator Not Counting Obama - Bayh or Biden?

Putin Pockets Patriots Prize.

Aha, the old "I forgot I had it in my pocket and besides you capitalist pigs have more money than God" ploy.

Drive-By Review

The Girl in the Cafe - An HBO/BBC production, written by Richard Curtis ("Love, Actually", "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Notting Hill") and starring Bill Nighy (aging rock star Billy Mack in "Love Actually") and Kelly McDonald. The film exists to promote an agenda for the upcoming G8 summit in Scotland, namely the eradication of extreme poverty, which is responsible, if you are to believe the film (and I do), for the unnecessary deaths of 30,000 children worldwide every day - that's one every three seconds. (Curtis is the man behind Comic Relief and is one of the organizers of the upcoming Live8 concerts). The movie is being promoted as a romantic comedy, and there is some of that, but I think it's much more undefinable. Nighy plays a painfully shy workaholic civil servant who one day meets a girl who is a quarter of a century younger than him in his local cafe and is a bit of an enigma. He invites her along to the G8 summit and it's through their relationship and conversations that we learn about the issues facing the G8. It's a sweet story about an unlikely pair and an emotionally engaging movie with a serious message. I recommend it.

I was just here. Where did I go?

Oy! This poor, neglected place. I'm sliding into that summer frame of mind where I spend a lot of time reading mystery novels (three in the past week!), spending time outside and trying not to think very hard about anything at all. And I do pretty good at it. As a result, stringing more than 2 sentences together for a post here becomes a challenge, and one that I keep putting off in favor of mental laziness.

But hey, it's summer and school's out, right? Yeah! So there!

Can you hear me now??

French Hotel Rep:: "'Tom and Katie were at the luxurious Sofitel Marseille Vieux Port in Marseille. Tom's entourage, which included members of the Church of Scientology, took the entire third floor and parts of the second floor. Thirty-four rooms were reserved in total, and there were 40 people on his security staff. Tom stayed in our presidential suite with Katie at $1,200 per night.' The bill is being sent 'to the studio.' "

It gets scarier with each passing day.

"Sudden Impact? What's That?"

Celebrity Charades: "And even more than 'Celebrity Poker,' charades brings out the personality behind the celebrity persona. It's a fast-moving forum that cannot be controlled or scripted, and one that quickly reveals who is smart and who is slow. In an era when actors are prepped for talk shows and even the most spontaneous moments are vetted and choreographed in advance, it's refreshing to see the likes of Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Klein and Stanley Tucci play an old-fashioned parlor game that tests acuity and movie knowledge as much as talent or looks."

Caught it last night and really enjoyed watching it for exactly the reasons the author states: Who's smart, who's not quite so smart; who knows their movies and who doesn't; who's got a personality, who doesn't. It was also fun finding out that the guy who looked like Steve Guttenberg, but not enough like him to be him, actually was him!

It airs every night this week at 9:00 on AMC.

Decision 2005

The Final Four.

Slim pickins, indeed.

March of the [impossibly cute baby] Penguins.

Summer's Here and the Time is Right.

Welcome to the first day of summer. And what a beauty it is! The weather has been so nice recently - no humidity, 75 to 80 degrees during the day and cool at night - it's kept me away from the computer. That means I'm not posting here, but it also means I've (we've) gotten a lot of yard/pool work done. I took some pictures around the yard this morning and I'll be uploading them to my Flickr account later today or tomorrow, so keep an eye out.

Life has been very low-key lately. Lots of dem parties (like Tupperware), showers and the like. Things will start picking up after this weekend, I think.

Let's see what today's news has to offer...

Duchovny fiddling with "The TV Set". I'm glad we get to see him in front of the camera again, but with Ben Stiller? Puke.

Alias Stuff

From Watch with Kristin:

"[Michael Vartan] confirmed he'd be back next season: 'I'm looking forward to Alias next season. We go back in July. Who knows how many years we have left? So, you gotta milk it.' Indeed.

When asked how he'll bounce back from that jaw-dropping head-on collision in the finale, and if the rumor floating around that he might be in a coma is true, M.V. smartly (JJ was listening) played coy: 'You know, I'm not at liberty to say, but it was a pretty vicious accident. If I'm in a coma, it'll be some of my better acting!' Humble and gorgeous. Everything I've ever wanted in a future husband.

JJ, meanwhile, isn't giving up anything about that freaking hatch on Lost. Despite repeated attempts to get any kind of tease, he would only joke: 'It's Vaughn! Wouldn't it be great if Vaughn was in the hatch?'

Staying mum also on Jennifer Garner, he said only, 'She's great. She's in Canada, working hard,' referring to the Kevin Smith film she's shooting, Catch and Release.

JJ did say they're moving full speed ahead on the new season of Alias. 'We have the ending of next year planned now, and I think it's the best ending of a year we've ever had. The ending is awesome! The ending of next year is even better (than this year).'"

I can't imagine what they could do to beat this year's finale, but just the fact that they've got the entire season mapped out is so encouraging. Now they need to tell us when the new season starts!

Wicked, tricksy, false!

Gov. Bush wants probe of Schiavo collapse now. God, they'll do anything to prove he's responsible for her death.

Orrin Hatch - Hot or Not?

Decision 2005: "Since it's not an election year, and we at HottestUSSenator.com got bored, we created an election of our own. When you think 'hot' you probably don't think U.S. Senators. But if you had to choose, who would it be? Here are the starting eight. We'll narrow it down to four, then two, then select an 'Ultimate Hottest U.S. Senator Not Counting Obama'. The winning Senator will receive a certificate for looking hot."

Party affilliation and ideology do not matter - just raw sex appeal. Obama can't play because of unfair advantage.

(thanks, wonkette)

Ketchup stain sparks e-mail flurry: "'Hi Jenny. I went to a dry cleaners at lunch and they said it would cost ?4 to remove the ketchup stains. If you cd let me have the cash today, that wd be much appreciated.'"

Cheap bastard.

Oh for the love of Pete! Just go away. PLEASE.

Drive-By Reviews

Alien vs. Predator - Like a can of Chef Boy-ar-dee ravioli - not good for you, but quick, easy, doesn't taste too bad and you're not hungry anymore afterward.

Friday Night Lights - Really quite good. Not your typical sports movie, a true story about a small Texas town and its reliance on its high school football team for glory. I recommend it.

"Remember this date, for it is part of HIStory."

This must be seen to be believed. His aquittal is as important as the release of Nelson Mandela, the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the fall of the Berlin Wall? He really does not exist in the same reality the rest of share.

Wow.

That's no 4-foot python, lady...

...I'm just happy to...well, you know.

I poop on you!

Sanitation problems for climbers: "Because of the harsh conditions, piles of feces have accumulated at the mountain's crowded high camp, located at 17,200 feet (5,200 meters), Robinson said."

The Other Brother Darryl Not Heard From.

Bear Guzzles Campers' Beer, Eats Food - Yahoo! News:

"'He only drank three cans,' Larry he said. 'He would've drank all of them if it would've been Budweiser.'

Billy Bob Gaynor said the bear ate all of their food so they returned to Dunbar the next day.

'Either relocate them or let me eat them,' he said."

Yikes.

CT Shooting: "A man fatally shot his ex-wife, critically wounded her lawyer and then shot himself on the top deck of a parking garage outside of Middletown Superior Court Wednesday morning, law enforcement officials said."

The shooter had been looking to hire the husband of one our partners to represent him in the divorce. Thank God he didn't.

The Jackson trial -- the best of the worst items overheard during the Jackson trial. Sample exchange:

Ian Drew, Us magazine: "I am going to get both sides of the story..."

Bill O'Reilly: "Would you tell both sides of the story for Hitler? I mean, would you say, 'Oh gee, he had a bad childhood ...'? Come on. A monster!"

-- "The O'Reilly Factor," Fox News, Nov. 19, 2003

You can't accuse O'Reilly of blowing things out of proportion, that's for sure.

Salon.com Books | The journalist and the murderer:

"...there are a dozen points in "True Story," or a hundred, when I wanted to reach into the book and slap Michael Finkel. What I wanted to say to him was this: Chris Longo apparently tied rocks wrapped in pillowcases to the ankles of his sleeping son and daughter, and then threw them into a muddy pond in rural Oregon, where they spent the last seconds of their lives terrified, trapped, freezing, drowning. (They were recovered wearing only underwear, with no signs of trauma, looking almost as if they were still asleep.) I can imagine facing the bitter fact that even this man is a human being, and that no one could do something so horrible to people he supposedly loved without suffering some kind of grievous pain. But you, buddy -- you became his best friend. You sat by the phone with a pot of tea every Wednesday night, waiting for him to call. Were you completely out of your fucking mind?"

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Schiavo autopsy findings released today: "'The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain. ... This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons.'"

I feel relieved and I had no part in the decision. Now maybe they can all let her go.

LOST Con Tidbits

'Losties' is a stupid word, but this was funny:

"At the end of a Q&A session with several of the show's writers, one audience member shouted, 'Don't kill Sawyer,' referring to the island's hunky bad boy. Executive producer Damon Lindelof replied, 'We won't. But he did get shot, which means his shirt will be off in a future episode.' As female crowd members whooped, Lindelof added, 'And he'll be wet' "

And there are a couple of interesting pieces of information re: "the others", the hatch and the rear section of the plane (I knew it!).

Report: Paris Hilton to retire in 2 years.

Retire? From what??

Jackson not guilty.

Pass the Jesus Juice, please.

South Africa's 'rain queen' dies at 27: "Custom forbids the queen from marrying, but the royal council chooses consorts for her for the sake of procreation."

Not a bad gig. Except for the dying-at-such-a-young-age part.

One Night Changes a Life, and Calif. Town
: "The crowd wanted him in the game. Amundsen wanted him in, too. But he was also afraid the slightly built 18-year-old might get hurt.

Amundsen considered all this as he walked toward Ryan and patted him on the shoulder. Off came the warmup jacket, the buzzer blew and Ryan kind of half hopped, half ran onto the court, his left leg trailing slightly at an odd angle.

The noise was deafening as he ran out on the court.

In the stands, Justin Belflower was near tears. A few years earlier, he was a jock at Clovis East, one of those big men on campus. He knew how hard his kid brother had worked for this moment.

'If you had said four years ago he'd play in a varsity basketball game, I'd say stop lying because it will never happen,' Justin said.
On this afternoon in February, it did.

And Clovis East would never be the same."

"We are finally descending, and soon I will be able to tear down the stinkshield, but the scars will remain."

From snopes, veracity undetermined. Funny regardless.

Going off the Rails on a Crazy Train

I told myself I wasn't going to do this anymore, but I just can't turn my eyes from the trainweck of insanity that is Tom Cruise right now.

So, psychiatry is a Nazi science now, huh? I think someone needs to start selling a "Save Tom" t-shirt. I foresee hours wasted perusing the site Operation Clambake, which carries the banner for "The Fight Against Scientology on the Net". It is a vast storehouse of articles, profiles, analysis and an archive of secret Scientology documents and even the FBI files on L. Ron Hubbard. Cruise is supposedly an "OT8" in the Church of Scientology and this is a brief description by Operation Clambake of that "thetan" level:

"OT 8 is a big expensive mystery, only delivered on the newspeak-named Scientology cruiseliner "Freewinds" out on the Caribbean. People who have completed this level have said that it is a review of all of the person's auditing and a verification/ nullification of discoveries the person has made about himself, that it is Route 1 and 2 from the Creation of Human ability book, that it involves looking into your past auditing folders in order to spot any moments where you were being somebody else, e.g. past life identities, which you have discovered on Int Rundown or NED and any body thetans you have unleashed on OT III, OT IV, OT V, OT VI, OT VII and on Lists L10, L11 and L12, then a meter check to see if these identities are right or wrong items. At the end of this new process (New OT VIII), you will have recovered all of your own time track, supposedly."

Sweet Jesus.

The Scientology Celebrity FAQ is exhaustive and very enlightening. And I've only read a small fraction of the total list.

An absolutely spectacular unfugging.

Bravo, Jack!!

Ah, Venice.

Traffic has SUCKED this week.

Does a bear stay in the woods?

No.

Bear Attacks Dog Inside Virginia House: "Rosie, a 3-year-old blue heeler, dashed inside, followed closely by Irving and the bear. Irving tried to close the door behind her but the bear forced its way through, pinning her momentarily behind the door, and attacked Rosie."

We came across a mother and her cubs at Mohawk over Memorial Day weekend. Here she is with one of her cubs (she had 3!) being chased from a campsite:



And this is a shot of one of the 2 cubs she had herded up a tree for safety:



What?? You can clearly see his tongue!

My Next T-Shirt Purchase.

Repressed-Memory Therapist Recovers Rockford Files Episode: "'I'm 8... I'm wearing my Pooh pajamas... wrapped in an olive-green blanket...' a transcript of Spees' first session read. 'A phone's ringing, but it's not mine... I'm waiting for someone to answer the phone... There's a message.... An important message about someone picking up the car from the garage? No, it's a woman saying she's lonely... no, it's a pizza shop. I'm not sure...'"
[...]
"Joan can run from her problems all she wants, but the haunting, sinister image of the gun in the cookie jar will be with her forever," Marnard said. "And even if she has discovered the source of the mysterious answering-machine messages, it doesn't explain Joan's recurring memories of a shadowy, mustachioed figure known only as 'Higgins.'"

I just don't get how something like this happens. What circumstances lead to 4 people lying dead in an apartment for 2 years without anyone suspecting anything? The article states that the 4 people died at different points over the last decade. So not only were they all dead in there for 2 years, some of them lived in that apartment with the ones that had died before them.

Man's leg lands in yard: "Pam Hearne heard 'a loud crash' and later was stunned to see a foot clad in an Adidas sneaker and a sock in her yard, said Officer Thomas Blanchard. The leg, with hip and spine attached, dented the shingled roof of her garage before bouncing into the lawn."

Ah, JEEZ.

God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson.

The lights on Broadway will be dimmed tonight in honor of Anne Bancroft, the winner of two Tonys, an Emmy and an Oscar. I just recently saw one of her later films, "84 Charing Cross Road" with Anthony Hopkins, and I highly recommend it.

Good question: "While authorities on the Canadian side of the border await his return, a question for customs officials lingers: At a time when the U.S. is tightening its borders, how could a man toting a bloody chain saw be allowed to enter the country? "

Update: US Customs could have locked this guy up purely on suspicion of being completely batshit crazy. Outstanding warrants or not, you just gotta know that he did something for which he should be put away. As an aside, were he and Jennifer Wilbanks separated at birth?

Being this cute has to be against the law.

Lohan wonders why tabloids care.

Honey, if they didn't, you wouldn't have a career. And please, please, please EAT.SOMETHING.

Katie Watch

They got her: "Holmes, who has been spending a lot of time at the Scientology Center in L.A., showed up at the junket for 'Batman Begins' at the Regent Beverly Wilshire with 'an entourage of Scientologists in tow,' said our spy."

I'm really starting to wonder if all those rumors that Cruise is a closet case are true. I mean, he does admit to considering becoming entering the priesthood when he was young (his ego notwithstanding, I don't even he would aspire to becoming the entire priesthood). Then there's the marriage to Kidman, with two adopted children, which was cut short right before the 10 year mark when according to a pre-nup they would have had to split everything 50-50, the Penelope Cruz PR affair...I know, I'm grasping at straws, but I guess I'm looking for an explanation for his antics. Maybe all his posturing and obnoxious cockiness is a manifestation of the suppression of his true self. Or not. At any rate, he is said to have recently fired his old PR firm, a company that seems to have done an amazing job of controlling and hiding his raging case of the crazies for years.

Of immediate concern, however, is the new girl. FREE KATIE. Please.

Oh, and in other Cruise News, my sister told me that Brooke Shields had more to say - she offered to send him, and I'm paraphrasing here, two tickets to her show in London, "one adult and one child." Zing!

Classic Movie Lovers Take Note

Turner Classic Movies has a couple of good things going on this month:

Ingrid Bergman Salute: 19 of her movies, played on Monday nights

Future Shock: Sci-Fi films from the Cold War era

I haven't seen quite a few of these films, so I may just have to check it out.

Aw, dude, I totally fell for it! (the Samuel L. Jackson part)

What a dork.

It's all your fault, Ben Affleck!

Jennifer Garner's pregnancy may delay the show's return, according to E!'s Kristin:

"I'm told ABC suits didn't know of Jennifer Garner's pregnancy when they decided to renew the show (given the surprising early pickup, she probably didn't even know herself), and now the higher-ups are in something of a pickle trying to figure out when the show can return...Sadly, according to a source close to the show, it's becoming unlikely that Alias will return in the fall as planned, instead coming back at a later date."

Only bright spot in all of this is that if they come back after the baby is born, then we probably won't have to deal with them knocking Sydney Bristow up and in all likelihood ruining the show. And maybe during the long wait they can come up with a better time slot than Thursdays at 8:00.

Sawyer is in a new movie: "'I am loving Vancouver,' Holloway says, calling during a break in filming. 'The Pacific Northwest is insanely beautiful.' "

And I am loving you.

Police 'free' S&M sex slave from car trunk: "Police stopped the car after a concerned caller told them he had seen a woman locking someone in the boot. However, on opening it, they were greeted by the sight of the 39-year-old man wearing nothing but a leather thong and a collar."

LOST adds one bad mothaf*cka to its cast. (see item #1 under "Notable TV Guest Appearances")

Discuss in comments due to casting spoilers that some may wish to avoid.

Brooke & Tom's War of the Words: "'Tom Cruise's comments are irresponsible and dangerous,' Shields said in London last week. 'Tom should stick to saving the world from aliens and let women who are experiencing postpartum depression decide what treatment options are best for them.' "

The article goes on to say that Paramount/Dreamworks have cut back the press tour to promote "War of the Worlds", in favor of a smaller number of "preselected interview sessions". After the Der Spiegel debacle and the lunacy of his Oprah appearance, they might want to add "carefully controlled" to the description of those interview sessions.

Still here, barely!

No, the bears did not eat me last weekend. I managed to get sick when I got back and I'm just now recovering. I'll be back with some posts soon, hopefully today!